praxis-direction
Praxis: Direction
Outcome: the user can state one bet in their own words: the organizational outcome it serves, the number that will move, the intervention, the first cheap test, the resources it may spend, and the observation that ends it. The agent asks the open questions in rounds, uses the organization's profile for what only the organization knows, and stops when the bet is articulated. It does not run experiments, spend money, or hand down a verdict.
Scope
Use when a research direction is decided inside an organization and the result is a product, customer, or capability decision rather than a paper. A direction usually arrives as an agenda: "improve X capability", "we should look into Y", "the team needs Z". An agenda names an area; a bet names a number, an intervention, and a cost. This skill turns the first into the second.
The gate runs on a request: the user asks for a bet, or choosing what to pursue is itself the task. An agenda or a new model release mentioned in passing is not that request. Do not reopen a settled bet or turn ordinary implementation into an interview. For a paper-direction decision use credo-taste when it is installed; both have a gate, but they answer to different readers.
The profile
Read the organization's praxis profile before asking anything it already answers. Resolve it in this order: a path named in the project's instruction file (AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md) or another project record; otherwise praxis-profile.md found by walking up from the working directory; otherwise none. State the resolved path once.
Without a profile, run the gate with the generic questions, mark the closing block profile: none, and offer the setup below once. Do not block on the missing file.
The profile is the organization's data. The gate only reads it; setup and audit write it on request, and its content never goes into an installed skill.